bak kut teh

Yip Yong is the nearest bak kut teh to my condo and I’ve eaten here quite often. The parking in this particular area of Sunway Giza can be a bit of a nightmare but there’s a multi-storey carpark for around RM 1/hour behind this. You can exit from the lifts right to the back of this BKT restaurant so it’s very convenient. I hear they’re originally from Klang.

There aren’t a lot of people who come here for lunch, mostly due to the fact that it’s flanked by two chap fan places, both of which are cheaper options. Interestingly, the chap fan places are *packed* from 12 pm – 1 pm. However, if you’re in the mood for a little more protein in your diet, you’ll do no wrong in popping in here for some nourishing herbal pork soup.

This is the regular bak kut teh. It’s RM 12 for a single portion and you can opt for a variety of meats of a single type. I choose a bit of everything, including innards. There is usually a large pork bone, a few slices of prime pork belly and miscellaneous organ meat like intestines and stomach.

There is also generous amounts of different soy byproducts like fu chuk, tofu etc. You can also add yau char kueh/youtiao (Chinese crullers) for RM 2. It comes in a bowl and you’ll be charged according to whether you eat it or not. I usually do if I’m hungry. The soup here is quite nice and refills are free.

The dry bak kut teh here is actually A LOT better than the regular one. The caramelized sauce is fortified with dried sotong and okra and other delicious bits. It’s RM 13 for one portion, slightly more expensive than the soup version. You also get a tiny bowl of BKT soup on the side for you to wash down the meal with. I’m not sure if you can refill this normally but since I’m a regular they don’t charge me.

A meal here usually sets me back RM 18.50 inclusive of drinks. They only have different kinds of herbal tea , there are no brewed drinks. I like the dry bak kut teh more than the soup bak kut teh. The dry BKT here is phenomenal while the soup version is kinda meh compared to Klang. Restaurant Yip Yong Klang Bak Kut Teh is the best BKT in Sunway Giza, but only coz there’s not much competition. :)

It started with one of the best bak but teh sessions in Klang. Sam wanted to bring us to this great BKT place he knew but unfortunately they had sold out (at 11 am in the morning!) so we headed to the popular fallback – Teluk Pulai Clay Pot Ba Kut Teh.

There’s just something about eating bak kut teh in Klang – it’s the real thing, it’s what it’s famous for, and nothing quite beats plate of lard enhanced rice with various cuts of pork simmering in herbal soup. They do an excellent dry BKT as well.

There’s even a healthy order or stomach, intestines and other innards.

How awesome is that? I had two plates of rice, and with that awesome start to the day we headed to KEN Rimba, which is surprisingly just minutes away.

KEN Rimba is Malaysia’s first green township in Shah Alam, but don’t let the address scare you off – it’s not that remote. Despite it’s Shah Alam postcode, it’s actually a stone’s throw away from Klang…

…and I mean that literally. I could probably throw a stone from the eco-friendly development and hit Klang. I think. Heh.

The concept of KEN Rimba is inspirational – it’s a 60 acre freehold development that is built on environmentally sound practices. We were shown around the still-building JIMBARAN Residences (168 units) as well as the completed LEGIAN Residences (328 units). There will also be two phases of condominiums in this township and the streets are split up by rain trees in mini-roundabouts.

The former is a scaled up and larger version of the latter, and it brings the concept of ecologically friendly houses to life. The basics are all there like building houses in a north-south orientation. It helps prevent the worst of the glare from the sun to come in and the consequent build up in heat while roof tiles that removes heat and proper ventilation meant to catch the natural wind is installed.

The back lanes and turfed walkways running along the each carefully planned terrace house blocks has Palawan trees for shade (and good ol’ CO2 to oxygen conversion) – little oases that you can walk through that provides a burst of green that’s quite soothing to the eyes.

There are even water features there that are being seeded with marine life. It all makes me feel like I’m in Bali, which is why I suppose the names of the residences are chosen. Heh. I like how this both works as a carbon sink and aesthetic feature.

The terraced units utilize some of the same green features incorporated in the high end KEN Bangsar luxury condominium – which goes to show that building green does not necessarily have to be limited to expensive developments.

The bit I love most is how the homes are illuminated by a skylight – it allows natural light to shine down straight from the roof and reaches down to a small plot of open garden right in your living room!

It’s dubbed an in-house green planter for internal landscaping in the industry. This is what it looks like in an unfurnished unit – you can do whatever you want with it, even tile it up, but that’ll be a shame considering the novelty of the area.

Here’s what the potential of that (relatively) little plot can do. This is the show room and I thought that having real plants inside your living room would be something different, a real area you can put your green thumb to and introduce some greenery into your daily life, right where you can see it all the time.

The terraced units looked small in the unfurnished lot that we went to but it was just a question of scale – without furniture inside, it’s hard to tell how space can be utilized and I was amazed when the show room provided a visual example.

The living and dining areas are huge and can easily fit a family of four with rooms for everyone, including a maid if you’re so inclined.

The second level contains the master bedroom with its own en-suite bathroom and toilet while the other two rooms are spacious enough for future developments of your own. ;)

They can be your kid’s bedrooms or a study and library, depending on how you want your lifestyle to be. JIMBARAN Residences has a slightly larger lot size of 22′ x 65′ while LEGIAN Residences is a standard 20′ x 65′ but it’s what you do with the area that matters! The latter has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and the photos are from that showroom. It has a built up area from 1,800-2,200 sq ft.

Sam also showed us how rainwater can be filtered and recycled with the rainwater harvesting tanks provided at the back, which you can reuse to water your lawn or wash your car.

KEN Rimba has the 328 units in Legian Residences ready to live in (although it’s almost sold out) and the upcoming Jimbaran Residences is going to be built with a loft, which increases the area of space available (from 2,100 – 2,500 sq ft). That makes a total of 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and an attic/loft. I think the loft would be great for a teenager to live in, at least I’ve always wanted that growing up. :)

There is also a commercial area which will have F&B outlets (so you don’t have to drive to Klang if you don’t want to), an existing playground and other thoughtful conveniences like the covered walkway to the nearest KTM station. Both JIMBARAN and LEGIAN Residences are guarded communities and the security is awesome – it’s a place where you’ll feel safe having your kids play outside.

It’s easy to lose yourself in the greenery that is KEN Rimba – the trees planted to flank the area not only shuts out the surrounding enterprises, but also reinforces the feeling that you’re walking into a green township. It’s won several prestigious awards like the BCA Green Mark GOLD and GOLD PLUS (Provisional for JIMBARAN) as recognition of it’s ecologically friendly status.

The corner terraces all have a swimming pool! I think that’s awesome – a place to cool down after the stresses of the day.

The terrace homes are not just green, it’s affordable too and has all the nice touches that makes it desirable. You can find out more information at the KEN Rimba website.

I headed down to Cheras over the weekend to check out June’s family’s bak kut teh place. It’s at Taman Segar, just a stone’s throw away from Cheras Leisure Mall (if you’re an Olympic grade shot-putter that is). I was particularly interested in the dry bak kut teh noodles – bit of a novelty there. :)

Xingang serves bak kut teh as its main fare, but being a neighborhood shop, it also has chicken rice, fish and other miscellaneous dishes. What is interesting about the bak kut teh is that they don’t use a lot of herbs to cover up the lack of pork flavors – this BKT broth really has been boiling for a long time.

Go early if you want to have the bak kut teh noodles – it is one of the highlight of the lunch. Xingang is built so it feels like you’re seating al fresco but there’s air conditioning coming from the vents on top. I noticed this provides the best balance for eating BKT (not so cold as to make your dishes cool down the minute it gets set down and not so hot to leave you reaching for multiple glasses of iced water).

Big Bone Claypot Bak Kut Teh
This is a huge shank of pork. I love how the meat falls of the bones. The broth is really good – full of BKT flavors and garlicky to boot.

The huge bone allows you to pick the meat choices that you like – lean, fatty and even tendons. Mmm…

Bak Kut Teh Intestines & Stomach
Intestines. Notice anything different? The intestines are stuffed with intestines, like what I imagine a Matryoshka doll’s innards would look like. You know, one of those Russian nesting dolls that goes into another bigger doll etc etc.

You can order a plethora of cuts from trotters (pig’s feet) to braised egg and it comes in a small side dish filled with the item and some BKT soup, KK style.

Xingang Special Mix Bak Kut Teh
This is where you can choose three types of meat to go into your BKT. We opted for the dry version which is absolutely fabulous. It comes cooked in a spicy claypot with the dried chillis and okra.

I found the addition of okra to be particularly delicious. The okra starts out raw and gets cooked by the claypot heat. It goes very well with the dry salty BKT pork and the hint of spiciness in this dry BKT makes it one of the best I’ve ever had.

Bak Kut Teh Noodles
This is what I came for! You can choose between the dry (RM 6) or wet (RM 5.50) version. I went with the former, which comes with a bowl of BKT soup so you won’t be left wanting. The noodles are hand tossed and served with dry BKT pieces and garnished with a healthy sprinkling of mouth watering scallions.

I had this for my main dish (although I had rice as well, which comes sprinkled with deep fried onions) and liked it a lot. I also had a bowl of tong shui but it’s something one of June’s aunts made so don’t expect to see it on the menu.

Xingang is located at Jalan Manis 7 and has one of the best BKT outside of Klang. I really liked how hearty the soup is – it’s been boiled with a lot of pork and you can taste the care that went into it. The BKT noodles is awesome too – there’s a side of cabbage to offset the spiciness of the dried BKT pork slices.

Thanks for the lunch June! I will definitely be going again. I hear there are some other attractions in the Cheras area that I should be aware of. Heh.

Here comes the final dish of the series (sorry for the delay) where the bak kut teh soup has been stewed through all those two recipes, absorbing all the tastes and flavors in the process. The soup is delicious. It’s orgasmic. It just needs:

A bleeding heart! *cue “We have a bleeder!”

Well, a pig’s heart anyway. These things are pretty cheap, you can get a whole pig’s heart for about RM 4. I’ve cooked with pig’s heart before and can attest to the taste and texture of this wonderful organ in the portfolio of porcine delights.

Start by slicing the pig heart into manageable pieces…

…before dumping it into the soup. There’s a lot of clotted blood inside the poor pink animal’s heart and you might want to remove that or just cook it as clotted blood. It really doesn’t make much of a difference as long as you wash it first. :)

Let the pig’s heart simmer for about 30 minutes and you’ll end your bak kut teh adventures on a high note. The broth is hearty and the pig’s heart is chewy and absorbs all the flavors, producing a delectable slice of <3.

This is the second meal that we usually have after a bak kut teh cooking session. Remember the first recipe of chik kut teh with oily chicken rice? You’ll still have a lot of leftover BKT soup after that so here’s a quick and easy meal for breakfast!

Take a chicken drumstick out of the fridge and dump it straight into the leftover soup. I didn’t defrost it so as you can see, the intense change from freezing cold to boiling hot warped the bone of the chicken. Heh! You just need to boil this on high heat for 3 minutes for the chicken to cook.

Next, transfer the cooked chicken drumstick and a bit of bak kut teh soup into a smaller cooking pan. I do this to avoid stray bits of noodles from going into the main BKT pot. Crack an egg into the new pan of soup for a more complete ramen meal. It’s probably wise to use low heat now if you like your eggs to be firm and yet have a runny yolk.

The final step is to open a packet of ramen and put the brick of instant noodles into the soup. The best thing about this is that the BKT soup is more than tasty enough to stand on its own and as a bonus, you have extra ramen flavor sachets which you can use in the future. I love eating 3 packets of instant noodles with 4 packets worth of flavor sachets. :D

Let it cook for about 3 minutes and you’ll have a healthier version of ramen – a hearty bak kut teh broth ramen with chicken drumsticks and an egg. You can also try adding crab sticks if you like your breakfast ramen with more condiments. It’s delicious! :)

Bak kut teh or pork bone soup is a hearty herbal delight that’s very versatile and delicious. We’ve come across a routine that can make the same BKT soup last for 3 meals with three very different recipes. However, I hear you asking – Why chick kut teh?

Well, for one thing, pork is damn expensive in KL. It’s really cheap in Sarawak. However, the main reason is coz this is fast and easy to cook without compromising on taste!

I remember when I was a kid, there was this huge Nipah scare and everyone stopped consuming pork. Chik-kut-teh outlets practically sprouted like mushrooms overnight! There were even dedicated chick-kut-teh restaurants when people started saying that it tasted just as good as pork. However, they were all gone within a year and people went back to eating real pork bak kut teh when the outbreak was over. Heh!

Note that this recipe is still not halal since we found the BKT package in the non-halal section of the hypermarket.

You will need:

Yew Chian Haw Bah Kut Teh herbal mix

OXO cubes chicken stock

Quintessence Garlic & Parsley infused oil

Chicken drumsticks

Garlic

Salt

This was actually inspired by the photo on the BKT package. You can use any brand you like but we found that this is the best tasting one we’ve come across so far. Yew Chian Haw BKT mix can be located hanging beside the open meat refrigerated shelves in the non-halal section. The ingredients are fresh and the bak kut teh package has to be put in the fridge (crisper section) so it won’t go bad, unlike regular ones which can be stored at room temperature. It serves 4-6 people and that’s how we managed to extend this into three meals.

It’s the second time we’ve cooked this. Drumsticks are the best cut of chicken that you can use – BKT soup requires a bone based meat for flavor. The trick is in the marrow that leaches out after boiling. :)

First off, bring about 3 liters of water to boil and dump in the contents of the bak kut teh package. Put in two whole bulbs of garlic and add 2 heaped tablespoons of salt to the pot. The garlic tastes great when eaten like that. Unfortunately, we only had about 3/4 of a bulb left so we put in the cloves of garlic instead.

It’s important to note that you should not peel the garlic or it’ll disintegrate during the boiling process.

Let the soup boil for about an hour on high heat and turn off the stove. Add in the chicken drumsticks and continue to let it simmer for another half hour on low heat. You can put in as many chicken drumsticks as you want – we put in 5. I usually eat 3 drumsticks and my girlfriend eats two.

While all that is happening, prepare the oily chicken rice by dissolving an OXO chicken cube into some water and adding it to the rice. We use 1 chicken stock cube for every two cups of rice.

Pour about a teaspoon of oil into the rice and chicken stock mixture and turn on the rice cooker.

The garlic infused oil makes the rice taste richer and the bits of parsley lends a bit of much needed color into the entire shebang.

Scoop out the chicken drumsticks after the 1 1/2 hours of boiling is up and serve it with the oily chicken rice. You can chuck the BKT stock in the fridge for future use – it’s only going to get better each time as it absorbs the essence of each meal. :)

The garlic and parsley infused chicken rice goes very well with the piping hot chik kut teh. The drumsticks have absorbed the herbal notes of the BKT soup and it’s delicious! The meaty herbal soup complements the oily chicken rice and it’s great for those rare cold nights.

Chuan Kee Bak Kut Teh is located somewhere along the Genting-Klang road. Please do not attempt to get there without a GPS. It’s impossible. Fresh lives around that area and it took me and Michelle quite a while to find her place a couple of days ago.

We were headed out to dinner without a particular destination in place. I was about to go to a seafood restaurant when Fresh said that she was feeling like BKT. Hot damn! I felt like BKT too. Unfortunate for Mich who just had BKT for lunch. *pat pat*

Anyway, it was surprising to find the place PACKED despite the obscurity and…er, sheer ulu-ness of the area. I wouldn’t be surprised to find a BKT place in Klang full of hungry customers, but in this area? Hmm…

This is pig intestines/stomach soup with lots of pepper. I love this dish.

We also ordered a couple of other dishes:

I can’t read Chinese so Michelle would be the best person to ask about what we actually had.

I only know we ordered a lot of pork…

…coz that’s what you do when you eat BKT.

I have no idea who ordered this travesty though. Tofu! Veggies! WTF?

Now to the main feature! Klang (kinda, it’s on the Genting-Klang road :p) BKT.

Yu Kee Bak Kut Teh is arguably the most famous BKT place in KK. It’s located at Gaya Street. There are two BKT outlets there but the original is the best – you can see the difference with your naked eye, the locals flock to this place like bees to honey.

Yu Kee BKT is always packed while the other…well, it lacks in that department. Jerine also mentioned that she can smell Yu Kee from meters away while the other stall is odorless. She means that in a good way of course, the distinctive aroma of herbs from well cooked BKT.

I like Yu Kee coz I went there to eat straight out of rehab…it was the best meal I ever had considering the crappy food they serve inside. The difference between Kota Kinabalu Bak Kut Teh is that they serve you with small bowls of stuff instead of a huge melting (clay)pot.

Pork intestines

Pork liver

Pork ribs

Pork leg

Pork balls (not the testicular kind, it’s like fish balls but made of oink)

Pork belly (lean)

Mysterious part from a pig – I don’t know what this is

Tofu (no photos coz I DON’T LIKE TOFU!)

Yew Char Kueh in BKT soup

It was a pretty decent dinner but you want my honest opinion? It is the best Bak Kut Teh in KK and I remember loving it the last time I had it. However, those were different times when even an extra piece of chicken was much appreciated. Now that I have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it barely warrents a post.

It cost RM 72 for our meal. Do check out Yu Kee Bak Kut Teh if you’re in KK but for good ol’ BKT, go to Klang.

I know…who the hell goes to Klang to eat BKT at an eating establishment inside a mall instead of sweating it out like a man in some authentic looking (preferably run down) and well loved coffee shop?

The new port coolies of course!

Although our line of work has more to do with computer ports than harbor ports, nothing beats a bak kut teh breakfast!

The pork knuckles with enough fat to make 20 whales clutch their hearts with their flippers and float belly up.

The meaty pork ribs that just slides off the bone…

There’s nothing like the hustle and bustle of salt-of-the-earth hardworking men chowing down on bak kut teh before their daily honest backbreaking toil.

Please excuse my wanton exhibition of the flavorful pork knuckles that squirts out its juicy secrets as you bite through the layer of fat into the meat, bursting into a million taste bud orgasms in your mouth.

David Bak Kut Teh is a coffee shop specializing in bak kut teh (pork rib tea). There are a lot of bak kut teh establishments springing up over here now, but David is the oldest and most recognized of them all. It’s located at the traffic cop magnet beside the fire station in town so be prepared to move your car frequently if you park at the yellow line right in front, since parking is scarce at that area.

David is the proprietor of the place, the waiter and the cook all rolled into one. The man is a very friendly person with an amicable personality. He’s not actually a cook by profession, he came over from JB eons ago and worked in a department store as a salesman. Story goes, he tried his hand at cooking bak kut teh and spent four years perfecting his recipe.

His first operation was in a stall at the coffee shop beside his current premises. His bak kut teh was so popular that he finally expanded to his very own place…right next door. :) He runs the entire place with the help of his wife, and despite all the work, he’s a very jovial man. I’m quite impressed by his tenacity when he moved over to Sibu and the hardships he went through.

Anyway, enough about him. I had lunch with Autumn there and had their signature dish – bak kut teh. I like my bak kut teh with everything inside it, so there’s pork ribs, pork intestines, pork belly etc. Basically everything in the oink oink is inside the bowl of soup (tea).

It’s pretty good, the bak kut teh is done well, and I remember the distinctive taste from my childhood as how “bak kut teh” should taste like. It’s hearty soup with pork, served with a kickass combination of soy sauce and chilies.

Autumn opted for the ma yu chi lou (Sesame Oil Chicken) which is another one of David Bak Kut Teh’s specialties. She’s not a big fan of pork, beef or lamb so chicken is just about the only option she has. It’s served with rice and is surprisingly good. The only beef I have with the dish (haha) is that she requested for lean meat (breast meat) while I prefer thighs. No innuendo intended.

David Bak Kut Teh is a nice place to have lunch if you don’t mind dining al fresco in Malaysian weather at 12 noon. Autumn had to take off her sweater and was even considering going further if not in public. ;)